I'm baaack!

I hope you all had a spectacular, family-filled Easter weekend.

There is a good reason for my blogging absence, I promise. Reason being: I have zero patience at blogging via a cell phone. I don't know if this makes me un-dedicated or just rational, but it takes me way too long to post from my cell phone touch key board and my "." is right next to my space bar so I spend a lot of time deleting because my sentences.end.up.looking.like.this.

I also took only one picture all weekend and it wasn't for the sake of this blog but to remind my husband what he was missing out on by staying in Houston while I ventured out to El Paso. :)

That being said, I'll go on ahead and start my recap now and supplement this post with old pictures and pictures via Google images.

Because I am super dedicated knew that eating healthy was out of the question this weekend, I pulled myself out of bed at my normal 5am time Friday morning for an hour run, followed by 10 mins of abs and then 40 mins of running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to make sure that we had coffee, I ate some semblance of a breakfast (okkkk it was a Clif bar), and that I had everything I could ever possibly need for a two night stay in El Paso.

My parents came and picked me up, I kissed that boy goodbye, and my dad dropped my mom and I off at the airport and we were off to spend Easter weekend in El Paso with my mom's side of the family. This was a girl's trip :)

Thursday afternoon I went into Barnes and Noble and snagged this book to read on the flight:

It is so good. You all need it.

We got to El Paso early (our flight left at 9) and went straight to my Oma's (grandmother in German) apartment to drop off our bags, catch up for a few minutes, and then head out to lunch.

I had a delicious salad of spring mix, dried craisins, blackened shrimp (which were divine!!), sunflower seeds and raspberry vinaigrette. Oh and one of the best rolls I've ever tasted. It was without a doubt one of the most delicious salads I've ever had and I will most definitely be recreating it at home. Yum.

Then we went back and napped/read for a few hours. My mom and I had coffee and cookies (what? I worked out beforehand!) and I read like a mad man about my new BFF Kara.

Before I knew it, it was dinner time (this is what you do on vacations, right? eat?) so we met my two uncles/aunts for dinner at a steakhouse. Dinner consisted of another roll (that was not nearly as good as the the one at lunch), 2 glasses of cab (my absolute favorite red wine) and my mom and I split a rib eye, baked potato, salad, and pineapple coleslaw. Um - delicious. I never have steak, but it's by far one of my favorite meals.

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early and my mom and I laced up and went on a slow, hard, HILLY, 3.75 mile run. It was glorious having a running partner (something that I really wish I had more often!) because it made the whole run fly by, despite being as hilly as it was. My Oma ended up being really sick all day Saturday, so we just hung out at her apartment, kept her company, and hung out some more. Since she wasn't feeling up to going anywhere for dinner, it was frozen pizza and cab. A totally acceptable dinner by my standards.

And carrot cake. We may or may not have eaten WAY TOO MUCH carrot cake.

Sunday we were up early again, walked 2 miles easy, and then packed, loaded up, and headed to my uncles house for more wine (seriously? who drinks wine at 11am? oh I guess I do. sheesh) and a brunch of a WONDERFUL salad, ham, green beans, au gratin potatoes, fresh home-cooked bread, and homemade strawberry shortcake. My stomach has not hurt so bad from being THAT full in a long time. I may or may not have also made my mom split half a chocolate bunny with me. Oops.

And before I knew it, I was back home. Back to the grind. Back to most definitely sleeping through my alarm this morning and forcing myself to change today's run to a night run. Oh well. :)

Oh and the one picture I did take? It was this one, simply to remind my husband of what he was missing out on:

Yep, that's me. Post 3.75 mile, hard, hilly, SWEATY run.

But in case you were wondering, he is an extra good sport and followed up with:

Happy Monday!

Hills.

After the Blue Bell Fun Run 5k I realized something: for as much as I train and run and cross train and strength train and do yoga and pilates, I never really focus on hills. I do some speed work here and there, but hills have been, well, obsolete in my life.

The Clover 5k in all of its suckiness SHOULD have been an indicator to this, but I gleefully ignored why the race sucked so much (other than poor layout). Hills.

The Blue Bell 5k was even more hilly than the Clover 5k, but for whatever weird race reason I floated through this race.

Once I crossed the finish line one of the first things I said to Sean was that I needed to spend some time with hills and speed work.

Hills and I had our first official date this morning, along with the trusty and reliable treadmill. We all three met up nice and early in the quiet and dark and I left a hot, sweaty mess.

6 miles of hills is brutal. My poor calves are just plum tuckered out.

This whole week (since the 5k) has been an intensive work out week. I did a 33 minute speed session Sunday, a training run Monday, Spin Class and ab work Tuesday, a training run and strength session Wednesday, 6 miles of hills, 10 minutes of Pilates and (will do) an hour of yoga today, and tomorrow I have a training run, strength work and probably another 10 minutes of Pilates. That really doesn't sound too bad when I read it. In fact, a lot of my weeks look similar. But it's been awhile since I've taken a day off. Remember when we talked about that?

I have a good reason, I really do. See tomorrow morning, I get to go and have LASIK. No more eye infections for me (hopefully).

And after I have LASIK I can't work out at all (not even yoga, boo) for at least 3 days. My running self almost cried (I wish I was kidding). No running? No. What about yoga? NO. ehhhhhh ok. fine.

They said I could do a "light walk". What a tease.

Anyway, I get to take the day off work tomorrow and force Sean to spend all day with me (he's a good husband!). So hopefully I'll have some time to update my bloggin' friends on the rest of my life. But today, today all I can think about is those darn hills. And how much I really love them. Is that weird? Don't get me wrong, they were AWFUL. I wanted to quit so many times. But as soon as it was over, even though I was dripping with sweat and wanted nothing more than to just sit and die, all I could think about and have been thinking about is how much I wish I started doing hills sooner.

Oh and P.S. Our one year anniversary is this weekend :)